


the day of the father

by AlmondRose



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Father's Day, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attacks, implied timkon and jayroy bc that's How I Roll
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-19
Updated: 2017-06-19
Packaged: 2018-11-16 00:08:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11242158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlmondRose/pseuds/AlmondRose
Summary: steph has never liked father's day





	the day of the father

Stephanie Brown has always hated Father’s Day. 

 

She can’t remember a single Father’s Day that she spent celebrating, going to the park or eating a barbecue or whatever normal people with good fathers do. Most Father’s Days were spent locked in a closet or sitting around and staring at a wall, trying  _ not  _ to think about her dad. 

 

Now that her dad is  _ officially  _ out of the picture--well, she isn’t sure what to do. 

 

She starts by hiding in her apartment, all the lights off and the curtains drawn. Steph isn’t really sure who she could even talk to--Bruce doesn’t see her as his daughter, and she doesn’t have any other father figures. Her friend group has somehow narrowed down to the Bats--all of whom have actual, great, fantastic  _ dads.  _

 

Steph’s hand reaches for her phone, absentmindedly, and she goes to “favorites” and presses on a contact without really thinking about it, putting the phone to her ear. The phone rings. 

 

“Hey, this is Kara! Really sorry to have missed you, but I’ll try and call back! Just leave a message, and have a great day!” The dial intones and Steph throws her phone across the room, pulling her blanket up over her head. Maybe she’ll just die, or something. Fall into a pocket dimension where everyone is gay and there are no dads allowed. 

 

_ Ug _ , she thinks, and she wishes she had a dog or cat or something instead of a dying succulent on the kitchen counter. Maybe then she could have some company without explaining to humanity why she feels like death. 

 

When she peeks out of her blanket to get a breath of fresh air, the darkness of the room begins to overpower her. 

 

Everything’s closing in and it’s  _ dark  _ and she’s in the closet again, her dad somewhere outside, and Steph can’t breathe. 

 

She throws off her blanket and grabs the first pair of shoes she finds, putting them on through her haze and launching out the window. 

 

Muscle memory kicks in and she tucks into a somersault at the landing, the impact hurting but not too badly. 

 

Steph wants to just sit on the floor, but she has to get  _ away.  _ So she runs, and she needs to breathe. 

 

She’s wearing a ratty sweatshirt that may have been Tim’s at one point and a pair of leggings and flip-flops, but she doesn’t care and she runs, runs, runs. 

 

Steph’s good at navigating via the rooftops, but on the ground of Gotham City she has no clue where she is, and she’s glad. Everywhere she looks she sees advertisements about dads, and fathers, and she  _ hates _ Arthur Brown more than ever. 

 

As a Father’s Day gift to herself, she sits on the ground on the steps of a CVS with her eyes closed, remembering that time she went to jail to beat up her dad. 

 

She hopes she looks homeless and that people will ignore her. 

 

Someone clears their throat, and she can tell they’re right in front of her. 

 

_ Crap.  _

 

“Yeeeeeeees?” Steph asks, opening one eye, then nearly falling over. Bruce Wayne is standing there in a full bajillion-dollar outfit, making zero effort to be incognito, his arms crossed and one eyebrow raised. 

 

“What are you doing here?” Steph asks, her voice squeaking embarrassingly. 

 

“Looking for you,” Bruce says. 

 

“On  _ Father’s Day?”  _ Steph asks. “Shouldn’t you, like, be with your kids or something? Getting new ties and ‘world’s best dad’ cups? Buying dinner for Alfred or whatever?”

 

“I already did that,” Bruce says, and he offers her his hand. She takes it, suspicious, and he pulls her up. “Dick’s at the cemetery--he wanted to be alone--Tim and Kon are with Clark (family dinner, you know how it is), Cass is going to go to dinner with Basil, Duke is visiting his parents, and Jason is with Lian and Roy. Damian’s with his animals.”

 

“Oh,” Steph says. Bruce starts to walk away and she follows, not sure why. “And Alfred?” 

 

“He took me to my parents’ grave and we went out to lunch with the kids.”

 

“Oh,” Steph says again. “So why were you looking for me?”

 

“I thought we could go out to dinner,” Bruce says mildly. Steph’s brain short-circuits. 

 

“Oh,” she says for a third time. 

 

“Then a family patrol after,” Bruce continues. “Even Jason’s agreed to try and be civil.”

 

“Um,” Steph says. “I--I’m not dressed for dinner.”

 

“Do you want to stop at your house? You don’t have to dress up, you know,” Bruce says. “We could just go to a waffle diner, if you want.” 

 

Steph squints at him. 

 

“....If it’s Father’s Day, shouldn’t  _ you  _ pick?” she asks after a minute. 

 

“Alright,” Bruce says, and they stop by a car that Steph recognizes as one of Bruce’s “casual” cars. She slides into the shotgun seat and Bruce gets behind the wheel, driving away. 

 

“So where are we going?” Steph asks.

 

“The waffle place you like,” Bruce says. “The one you take Damian to.”

 

“Oh,” Steph says. “I  _ do  _ like that.”

 

“I know,” Bruce says, and they drive in silence for a few minutes. 

 

“Hey, Bruce?” Steph says when a light turns green and they start to move again. 

 

“Yes, Stephanie?” 

 

“Thanks.”

 

She feels his eyes flick to her, and she sees him smile.

 

“No problem,” he says, fixing his gaze back on the road. 

 

Steph looks out the window and watches the buildings go past. She’s still not sure where in Gotham she is, but she knows Bruce knows. She bites her lip and smiles out the window, an unknown weight lifting off of her shoulders. 

 

“Happy Father’s Day,” she says after a minute, and she doesn’t think about Arthur Brown for the rest of the night. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! hope you enjoyed!! comments/kudos always welcome :)


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